Our Mission

The South Slope Dog Owners Association has adopted the park land located on 18th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues close to the corner of 7th Avenue. Our mission is to improve the quality of life in the Greenwood Heights area by creating and maintaining dog friendly space, encouraging beautification of green space, promoting awareness of laws and etiquette relating to dog ownership, and fostering positive interaction between dog owners and the community as a whole.

09/29/2010

As a follow up to our discussion at Coffee Bark on dog fight prevention, David and I wanted to stress a couple of points.

The best way to prevent dog fights is to not let them happen. We support the rules that your association has developed. Those rules are designed to ensure the safety of your community and your dogs. The larger point however is this: all responsible dog owners have a duty to communicate and copperate with each other to ensure the safety of their dogs and each other.

We next stress the importance of all dog owners exercising strong control over their dogs. We know that our dogs are our friends and constant companions and that they love us unconditionally. But we also show our dogs love when we train them to obey our commands. One of the most important commands to teach your dog is the recall command in an environment full of distractions. That way, when you sense danger, your dog will obey you and return immediately. Remember to remain calm, do not panic, just recall your dog and go to a safe area.

Owners should be vigilant and learn the physical signs that signal that a fight may occur. For example, dogs with stiff tails straight up in the air and eyes fixated on each other and other displays of domiance are good indicators of a problem about to erupt. Sometimes a dominant dog will intimidate a passive dog and no fight will happen. No need to risk it, if you sense danger, calmly recall your dog and find a safe place. Also call the other dog owner to keep an eye on his dog. This is where communication and cooperation among dog owners is key.

If a fight does break out, we urge you to NEVER TRY TO BREAK UP A DOG FIGHT ALONE. You probably do not have experience in breaking up fights and dog fights can be vicious and dangerous. A lot of good minded people have been hurt. Dogs are animals and can be unpredictable and when they are locked in a fight, they are not in the mindset of being your companion. If you intervene, you put yourself at risk of being bit, even by your dog. Further, if you were to get bit, there is no way of knowing whether that dog is up to date on its shots.

If you decide to act to break up a fight, NEVER PUT YOURSELF IN THE MIDDLE AND ALWAYS HAVE HELP. Two or three dog owners may be required to pull the dogs apart. Once broken up, do not release the dogs and immediately remove the dogs from the park.

We understand the urge to protect your pets from attack but do not let that urge overide good judgment. Always remember to use common sense and practice responsible dog ownership. We hope this is helpful and feel free to contact us with questions.

09/28/2010

John and I are so excited about being a part of your dog loving community.We really enjoyed meeting you at Coffee Bark.You worked so hard to establish the South Slope Dog Run and it is our pleasure to be a small part of your ongoing efforts to maintain the dog run as a community resource.We were glad to help promote responsible dog ownership and common sense solutions to prevent dog fights, which we will add in a follow up post.

We are committed to helping dog owners raise happy, healthy and balanced dogs.Feel free to contact us, if you have any dog training, dog walking, dog sitting or other dog care related questions or concerns.Simply contact us through our blog or our website’s contact form at www.topdogservice.com or just feel free to call me (917-749-5756).

09/27/2010

Yesterday's park clean up and first coffee bark was a lot of fun! We want to thank Top Dog Service, LLC for coming out and helping us better understand aggressive behavior in dogs! Check out their blog for more details: Top Dog Blog

As a result of the session, we are going to place a broom stick and some "dog muzzle mace" in the park to use to break up a fight if necessary. We will let you know where they are as soon as we have them.

09/21/2010

Huntington Beach hosted the second annual Surf City Surf Dog competition last Sunday, raising money for animal charities while letting dogs strut their stuff in a costume contest, a one-mile walk and of course, a surfing competition.